I come from a family of lazy, morbidly obese individuals. My step father had gastric bypass surgery after hitting the 400-500lb mark and ended up gaining a lot of the weight he lost back, my mother is a blob, etc. My step father and mother would routinely buy my sisters and I our own pints of ice cream with the expectation that these were a single serving for us. I wasn't active at all as a teen - I was pretty depressed - and climbed into the 190lb range with ease (at 5'0").
Around my first year in high school, it was kind of like I woke up and realized I was fat as hell, and lost a significant amount of weight in a really short period by basically not eating anything except a Special K bar. This was an awful time in my life. I didn't have a clue how to eat healthy. I got down to the 140s and eventually learned to maintain that while eating according to my family's diet of fast food and (the less common) homemade meat-and-carb meals. I ate two meals a day, usually donuts in the morning and then whatever fast food my family had for dinner. I felt like shit unsurprisingly. When I got a job at 15, I ate out a lot but it was comparatively healthier (lots of veggie sandwiches because I worked at Quiznos, a lot of Panera because I felt a cup of soup there was cheap). Was low 140s and felt better. But it didn't really last.
When I went to college, I initially lose weight by not eating anything except breakfast and half a wrap at dinner time. When I got in a crappy six year long relationship, I just gained that weight back plus some and ended up fluctuating between 150-170 in my early 20s. I still had no clue how to eat healthy or anything like that, and I only would lose weight during times of stress or when I made an effort to just not eat. Still miserable.
Last year, after being in a much better relationship for nearly a year, I took up running and weight lifting with my boyfriend. I lost very little weight because I didn't really believe in counting my calories -- I felt I would start restricting like I used to. After working out for so long and not losing any weight, I was like, ugh... guess I'll count my calories.
I've lost 30lbs since mid-February, and am the lowest weight I've ever been in my entire life. I'm still technically a couple pounds shy of a normal BMI, but I look so much better and feel amazing. I can run five miles without stopping! I can pick up heavy things. I have actual shoulder definition. It's cool!
I'm 127-129lbs on an average day and would like to lose more weight -- hopefully drop to 110-115. I'd love to run a 10k and move to a gym with barbells (I go to Planet Fitness) so I can lift heavy. :) Getting fit and learning how to eat properly has been the best thing ever for me -- it feels amazing to have control over myself for the first time in my life. I learned such amazingly bad habits growing up and fell into awful, unhelpful patterns. It's good to be free of those.